Nonmetro Counties Research Articles

Internet Service Provision in the U.S. Counties: Is Spatial Pattern a Function of Demand?

The Internet has become an important part of the daily lives of millions of Americans. Despite its importance, there is little empirical knowledge about the spatial pattern of Internet growth. Using the number of ISPs (Internet service providers) as an indicator of Internet diffusion and adoption, the authors attempt to understand the spatial pattern of Internet adoption and the factors responsible. Specifically, they seek to answer three research questions: Do U.S. counties exhibit differences in Internet adoption? If so, what is the pattern of adoption? and How do county-level socioeconomic and geographical factors affect the adoption of Internet services? For the spatial analysis, polygon pattern analysis is used to see the pattern of Internet adoption. Three spatial error models (for all counties, metro counties, and nonmetro counties) are used to investigate the relationship between various county-level demand indicators and Internet service status. The result shows that market demand is the driving force as counties that are more urban, have more educated people, more business establishments, and higher housing value also have higher ISP presence. This finding implies that the remote and rural areas will continue to suffer from poor Internet access.

Nonmetropolitan Outmigration Counties: Some are Poor, Many are Prosperous

Population loss through net outmigration is endemic to many rural areas. Over a third of nonmetro counties lost at least 10 percent of their population through net outmigration over 1988-2008. Some of these counties have had very high poverty rates, substantial loss in manufacturing jobs, and high unemployment. Lack of economic opportunity was likely a major factor in their high outmigration. Most high net outmigration counties, however, are relatively prosperous, with low unemployment rates, low high school dropout rates, and average household incomes. For these counties, low population density and less appealing landscapes distinguish them from other nonmetro counties. Both types of outmigration counties stand out on two measures, indicating that quality-of-life factors inhibit inmigration: a lack of retirees moving in and local manufacturers citing the area’s unattractiveness as a problem in recruiting managers and professionals.

Trends in colorectal cancer incidence rates by age, race/ethnicity, and indices of access to medical care, 1995–2004 (United States)

Colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence rates in the US decreased rapidly since 1998. This is largely thought to reflect increases in utilization of CRC screening through detection and removal of adenomatous polyps. However, the extent to which the decrease varies by age, race/ethnicity, and differences in access to medical care is largely unknown. Temporal trends in CRC incidence rates were examined from 1995 to 2004 by regression analysis according to age (50-64, ≥ 65), race/ethnicity (whites, African Americans, and Hispanics), and categories of county-level indicators of access to care (poverty, primary care physician supply [PCP], uninsured rate [age 50-64], and metro/nonmetro) using incidence data from 19 cancer registries, covering about 53% of the US population. Changes in colorectal endoscopic screening and fecal occult blood stool test (FOBT) from 1995-1997 to 2002-2004 for the same set of county-level indicators were also analyzed, using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Among whites, CRC incidence rates decreased significantly from 1998 through 2004 in age ≥ 65, but not in age 50-64 in counties with high uninsured or poverty rates, fewer PCPs, or in nonmetro areas. Among African Americans or Hispanics, rates did not decrease in age 50-64 in general and age ≥ 65 in counties with high poverty rates, low PCP supply, and nonmetro counties (African Americans). Colorectal endoscopic screening rates increased significantly among whites in both age groups, but not among Hispanics (aged 50-64 in general and aged ≥ 65 residing in high poverty counties) or African Americans residing in counties with higher uninsured rates (age 50-64), low PCP supply, high poverty rates, and nonmetro counties (age ≥ 65). FOBT rates remained unchanged during the study time period. Our results suggest that individuals residing in poorer communities with lower access to medical care have not experienced the reduction in CRC incidence rates that have benefited more affluent communities; these disparities may be related to health care access barriers to colorectal endoscopic screening.

Metro-nonmetro Economic Growth and Convergence in the Plains States - Rethinking the Rural-Urban Relationship in a Global Economy

This paper tests for conditional b-convergence, and for s-, or unconditional convergence of the metro- and non-metro portions of per capita incomes of the Plains states as classified by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and calculates metro- non-metro income inequality. We find evidence of b-convergence only for the state of Missouri, and divergence for Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, indicating slower economic growth, and lack of economic parity for Plains states’ non-metro counties, and heterogeneity rather than homogeneity in terms of factor endowments. Metro non-metro income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient, increased for all states except Missouri. In terms of policy implications, we suggest a shift of Federal policy from subsidy based support of traditional agricultural commodity production to a multi-sectoral economic development approach, using the existing Northern Great Plains Regional Authority as an institutional structure to coordinate development efforts across the Region.

Growth of Information Technology industries in urban and rural areas

The use of Information Technologies (IT) has changed the economic landscape in urban and rural areas alike. Future economic prosperity may depend, in part, on the relative extent regions can attract, grow and hold IT-intensive industries. In this article, IT-related and e-commerce-intensive industries' direct employment generation performance was examined in urban and rural areas of Kansas between 1990 and 2003. The results indicated that IT-producing and -using industries have been growing faster in metro-adjacent and non-metro area counties than in metro counties. The presence of larger firms and higher population densities significantly enhanced IT-producing and -using industry employment growth. Contrary to expectation, an increasing share of knowledge workers in the labour force was found to hinder IT-industry employment growth in rural areas. e-Commerce industries faired poorly outside of metro areas.

Baby Boom Migration and Its Impact on Rural America

Members of the baby boom cohort, now 45-63 years old, are approaching a period in their lives when moves to rural and small-town destinations increase. An analysis of age-specific, net migration during the 1990s reveals extensive shifts in migration patterns as Americans move through different life-cycle stages. Assuming similar age patterns of migration, this report identifies the types of nonmetropolitan counties that are likely to experience the greatest surge in baby boom migration during 2000-20 and projects the likely impact on the size and distribution of retirement-age populations in destination counties. The analysis finds a significant increase in the propensity to migrate to nonmetro counties as people reach their fifties and sixties and projects a shift in migration among boomers toward more isolated settings, especially those with high natural and urban amenities and lower housing costs. If baby boomers follow past migration patterns, the nonmetro population age 55-75 will increase by 30 percent between now and 2020.

Challenges for maintaining sustainable agricultural systems in the United States

AbstractDuring the 20th century, US agriculture underwent vast transformations. The number of farmers has decreased, more farmers are relying on off-farm income, agriculture's proportion of the US GDP has declined, and a minority of non-metro counties in the US are farming dependent. Agriculture's evolution will continue and we have identified key trends and future challenges to effectively manage our changing agricultural system. Eight current trends in US agriculture were identified. These included: (1) increased land degradation; (2) competing land uses; (3) focus on single ecosystem service; (4) increase in farm size; (5) movement toward commercialization; (6) genetic engineering; (7) global markets; and (8) changing social structure. Future trends likely to affect agriculture include: (1) diminishing and increasingly volatile farm incomes; (2) reduced government involvement in food regulation; (3) continued transition from farming to agribusiness; (4) land-use will become a major issue; (5) increasing animal protein consumption in the US; (6) increased public input on livestock production practices; (7) increasing urbanization of historically rural US counties; (8) increased public concern over food safety; (9) increased medicinal production from agriculture; (10) new tastes, markets and opportunities will emerge. We further postulated that future challenges facing US agriculture might include: (1) competitive pressures; (2) sustainable development; (3) resource conservation; and (4) research and development. Integrated agricultural systems may be flexible enough to address these challenges. However, robust principles will be needed to design adaptable integrated agricultural systems. We present a nonexclusive list of preliminary principles under the four general categories of (1) economics and economic policies; (2) environmental; (3) social and political; and (4) technological.

The Changing Spatial Concentration of America's Rural Poor Population*

Abstract This paper documents changing patterns of concentrated poverty in nonmetro areas. Data from the Decennial U.S. Census Summary Files show that poverty rates—both overall and for children—declined more rapidly in nonmetro than metro counties in the 1990s. The 1990s also brought large reductions in the number of high‐poverty nonmetro counties and declines in the share of rural people, including rural poor people, who were living in them. This suggests that America's rural pockets of poverty may be “drying up” and that spatial inequality in nonmetro America declined over the 1990s, at least at the county level. On a less optimistic note, concentrated poverty among rural minorities remains exceptionally high. Roughly one‐half of all rural blacks and one‐third of rural Hispanics live in poor counties. Poor minorities are even more highly concentrated in poor areas. Rural children—especially rural minority children—have poverty rates well above national and nonmetro rates, the concentration of rural minority children is often extreme (i.e., over 80% lived in high‐poverty counties), and the number of nonmetro counties with high levels of persistent child poverty remains high (over 600 counties). Rural poor children may be more disadvantaged than ever, especially if measured by their lack of access to opportunities and divergence with children living elsewhere. Patterns of poverty among rural children—who often grow up to be poor adults— suggest that recent declines in concentrated rural poverty may be short‐lived.

Education's Effect on Poverty: The Role of Migration

E is a key determinant of economic well-being for both individuals and places. Despite overall improvements, however, rural residents still have significantly lower educational attainment than urban residents. Improving the quality of education and encouraging students to stay in school is one possible strategy for reducing poverty and raising local well-being. A better-educated workforce should have higher incomes. Partridge and Rickman showed that both education levels and increases in attainment explained spatial variation in poverty reduction. Outmigration to metro areas is a potential obstacle to this strategy, however. Migration from rural areas occurs because of the lack of demand for a better-educated rural workforce and the necessity of leaving rural areas to attend college (Gibbs). Outmigration may prevent local human capital levels from reaching the threshold required to attract new industry or encourage expansion in the existing economic base. Even where robust rural job growth exists, the lower skill levels and wages offered by rural employers, on average, both dampen the poverty-reducing power of education and hinder long-term development prospects associated with an increasingly high-skill economy. This study documents a direct effect of education on householder poverty, but does not find an indirect effect through migration. Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is used to obtain a sample of 708 working-age (25–64 years of age) household heads that lived in a nonmetro county in 1993. The metropolitan and poverty status of these individuals is observed in 1999. For

The O*Net Jobs Classification System: A Primer for Family Researchers.

We introduce family researchers to the Occupational Information Network, or O*Net, an electronic database on the work characteristics of over 950 occupations. The paper here is a practical primer that covers data collection, selecting occupational characteristics, coding occupations, scale creation, and construct validity, with empirical illustrations from the Family Life Project, a study of almost 1,300 families with infants born in 6 low-income, nonmetro counties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. We factor analyzed parents' occupations on 35 O*Net characteristics and identified 5 factors: occupational self-direction, physical hazards, physical activity, care work, and automation/repetition, variables that supplement data collected from parents directly. Applied researchers can use the O*Net to expand their knowledge of participants' work circumstances with objective data.

The Rural Side of the Urban-Rural Gap

The time does seem to be ripe for revisiting the urban-rural divide, with an eye toward understanding what lies beneath it. The last two presidential elections have revealed an urban-rural cleavage that is hard to ignore. Most observers now recognize that the “red” vs. “blue” Election Night maps really mask an urban-rural divide within states—a gap that has increased in recent years according to a range of definitions. In 2004, the difference in Democratic support between the most and least populous counties in the nation exceeded 25 points (see Figure 1). Survey marginals are comparable, although rural populations are not well represented in most national polls. Tabulations from the 2004 American National Election Studies (ANES) indicate a 20-point gap in presidential preference between inhabitants of counties with more than a million people and those in non-metro counties of less than 25,000.

Regional Innovation Systems: Implications for Nonmetropolitan Areas and Workers in the South

ABSTRACT A public policy response to global competition is the creation of a geographic concentration of innovative activity (regional innovation systems [RIS]) that will enhance metropolitan economic development through knowledge spillovers, product development, and new firm spin‐offs. This article identifies three types of RIS in the thirteen southern states based on a cluster analysis of twenty indicators of innovative and entrepreneurial activity. Next, regression analysis is used to determine if the 1990–2000 growth rates of nonmetro county population, employment, and earnings were related to proximity to an RIS after controlling for other county characteristics associated with local economic development. The research findings indicate that nonmetro counties near an RIS experienced more rapid population and employment growth; however, changes in nonmetro growth rates varied by type of regional innovation system. In addition, proximity to an RIS had a stronger impact on nonmetro population change than on nonmetro job growth.

Food Industry Investment Flows: Implications for Rural Development

Food processing firms are often seen as potential sources of growth for rural areas. This paper examines the influence that agglomeration, labor, product and input markets, infrastructure, and government fiscal attributes have on food manufacturing investment flows. The analysis uses aspatial probit model along with spatial clustering methods to analyze county-level data for 12 states in the midwest and southern U.S. Findings suggest that rural areas are at a comparative disadvantage with respect to attracting demand-oriented food processors, but non-metro counties with economic ties to urban centers may be attractive investment sites to supply-oriented food manufacturers.

Computer services and the development of rural areas: Trends in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s

Some researchers hypothesize that the increasing use of computers and telecommunications will lead to a greater flexibility in the location of jobs, particularly in nonmetro counties. Others see the continued dominance of metro counties, especially in well-paid employment. This research examines change in employment in the service category of computer and data processing comparing this with the broader categories of business and producer services. Trends in metro and nonmetro counties of the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s are evaluated to see if inequality between county types in these industry categories widened or narrowed over time. Findings from this research indicate that while nonmetro counties did increase their share of overall employment, employment in producer, business and, notably, computer services remained highly concentrated in metro counties. Location quotients also show that computer service employment was increasingly over-represented in dominant metro economies. In addition, the inequality in estimated salaries between the two largest metro counties in the region and other county types increased substantially in the short time period under consideration.

Restructuring of the US Meat Processing Industry and New Hispanic Migrant Destinations

Findings from the 2000 US Census indicate high rates of Hispanic population increase beyond urban areas and traditional immigrant‐receiving states. The diversity of new destinations raises questions about forces attracting migrants to rural areas and links between economic structural change and Hispanic population growth. Our conceptual framework applies dual labor market theory to the meat processing industry, a sector whose growing Hispanic labor force offers an illustrative case study for analyzing how labor demand influences demographic change. We document the industry's consolidation, concentration, increased demand for low‐skilled labor, and changing labor force composition over three decades. We then position meat processing within a broader analysis that models nonmetropolitan county Hispanic population growth between 1980 and 2000 as a function of changes in industrial sector employment share and nonmetro county economic and demographic indicators. We find that growth in meat processing employment exhibits the largest positive coefficient increase in nonmetro Hispanic population growth over two decades and the largest impact of all sectors by 2000.

The Emerging Roles of County Governments in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas: Findings From a National Survey

During the past few decades, local governments have extended the scope of their activities in response to changing economic and political conditions. By and large, research on local governments neglects counties, now the fastest growing general-purpose governments. This article examines counties’roles in economic development and public service activities and reports on findings from a national survey of county governments with broad generalizability and a relatively high response rate across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Counties provide important services that promote local economic development, enhance human capital, and serve social safety net functions. In accordance with literature on decentralization, the scope of these activities is reported to have grown with the passage of time. Relative to other counties, however, nonmetro counties provide fewer economic development and other public services and are less likely to have increased their role in these activities over time. The article examines reasons for these metro-nonmetro differences.

COMMUNITY CONCENTRATION OF POVERTY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES ON NONMETRO COUNTY PERSISTENCE OF POVERTY IN MISSISSIPPI

ABSTRACT In this article we examine differences in the spatial distribution of poverty within nonmetro counties in Mississippi, and the extent to which such differences might be related to the probability that a nonmetro county might be classified as persistently poor. This study contributes to the current literature by dividing the low-income population of the county between those residing in open territory and those within urban and rural census defined places (e.g., towns, villages, and municipalities). The premise is that the higher the share of the low-income population in a county residing within places, the higher the probability that the county will be persistently poor. The results indicate that, across counties with similar poverty rates, those with higher concentration of poverty are more likely to be classified as persistently poor. The results also show that concentration of poverty is especially problematic when low-income people are concentrated in rural places (less than 2,500 persons).

Education and Nonmetropolitan Income Growth In the South

This research evaluates the effects of higher stocks of human capital (measured by the share of adults with some college) on growth in county per capita income using a Mankiw, Romer, and Weil type model adjusted for spatial dependence and capital stocks. Regressions based on county data from the 1970-2000 censuses for the 15 southern states indicate that metro counties realized more of a “growth premium” from added human capital than nonmetro counties. With nonmetro counties, service-based counties generally fared best from enhanced human capital.

Education and Nonmetropolitan Income Growth in the South

This research evaluates the effects of higher stocks of human capital (measured by the share of adults with some college) on growth in county per capita income using a Mankiw, Romer, and Weil type model adjusted for spatial dependence and capital stocks. Regressions based on county data from the 1970-2000 censuses for the 15 southern states indicate that metro counties realized more of a “growth premium” from added human capital than nonmetro counties. With nonmetro counties, service-based counties generally fared best from enhanced human capital.

TANF Participation Rates: Do Community Conditions Matter?*

Abstract A general criticism of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act is that it is primarily the result of an urban political agenda, and it may hurt rather than help the rural poor. Under the new welfare system, the rural poor that are most likely to be affected are those who live in socially, economically, and spatially disadvantaged communities. More residents in these communities are likely to need TANF, clients in these communities are least likely to leave TANF by finding employment, and community organizations are likely to have more limited resources to help TANF recipients. The objective of this study is to examine the extent to which variations in community conditions account for differences in TANF participation rates. Using 1997 TANF data from the Mississippi Department of Human Services, we estimated OLS regression models of local TANF participation rates across 100 communities in nonmetro counties. The results indicate that TANF participation rates tend to be higher in communities with high concentrations of African Americans, less faith‐based activeness, more employment in retail trade, spatial concentration of the poor, and located in the Delta.